Thursday 1 December 2011
5 Quotes from Gaurdian
- “A successful female artist must not only be talented, but also able to titillate the gaze of an assumed male viewer”
2. "The female body is rarely a site of empowerment except when it is being objectified to define female strength through heterosexist sexiness, which, displayed for male satisfaction, creates little real power for women. Because female rappers' value lies in their ability to perform masculinity as well as be sexually objectified, when a femcee is not performing the role of the sexually available coquette nor the female thug, her power and agency are nonexistent."
3. “In stark contrast with these darkside girls, we also notice there is currently a proliferation of preternaturally exuberant female artists – Azealia Banks, Dominique Young Unique, Lady Leshurr, Kreayshawn – using electro and hip-hop as vehicles to express their fierce, feisty personalities.”
4. Being a woman in hip-hop isn't about wearing a little pair of shorts and shaking your arse for guys," she says. "It's about empowering yourself by performing something you believe in."
5. "We all agreed that women in hip-hop are generally neglected," says Julia Carruthers, the Southbank's head of dance and performance, who commissioned the festival. "It seems concerned with commercial interests and male swagger."
Articles for Critical Investigation
Hip-hop and pornography are going into business together. Over the past few months the Playboy channel has been developing new programming targeting urban audiences. In early October, allhiphop.com reported that rapper Nelly will be turning his infamous �Tip Drill� video into a full�length adult movie.
Several rappers are now employed part time by adult entertainment companies producing and starring in adult films all while having CDs on the Billboard charts.
Late night television and pay per view have helped these entertainers to create two personas: one that is somewhat kid-friendly and another that is strictly for the grown-ups. These two seemingly conflicting images don�t just coexist they can work together, broadening a performer�s fan base.
Sexual themes are not at all new to hip hop music or videos, but what was once considered obscene is now the norm. While 2 Live Crew�s overtly sexual lyrics were met with great protest and attempted censorship in the early 1990s, Black Entertainment Television�s late night program �Uncut,� which features very adult music videos and often racier versions of popular rap videos played during the day, has managed to thrive with very little attention or protest in mainstream media.
As sexual overtones in hip-hop music, culture and music videos become more widely accepted, it becomes more and more important for us to pay attention to the affects it has on women�s sexuality and body image.
Most often when the sexual nature of popular hip-hop is discussed rappers are criticized for objectifying women. Rap lyrics are often sexist and degrading. But, in a society with a history of judging women by a very European standard of beauty, hip-hop may actually have a very positive impact on the way women who do not meet these standards feel about their bodies.
An interesting trend in America that may be partly attributed to hip-hop culture is a change in the mainstream standard of beauty or more accurately, booty. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, in 2002, 614 butt implants were performed in the United States. In 2003 that number jumped to 3,885, an increase of 533%. Big butts have traditionally not just been accepted but celebrated in communities of color, and Sir Mix-A-Lot made that clear over a decade ago with his hit song �Baby Got Back.� Popular culture was a little slower to catch on.
As it becomes more and more common for hip-hop artists to dabble in fashion, the design of clothing has also adapted to fit more curvaceous figures. Both Nelly�s Apple Bottom line and Jennifer Lopez�s JLo, cater toward women who are rich in certain assets that can�t squeeze into a pair of Calvins. Women whose bodies look more like Beyonce or Queen Latifah than Kate Moss can now flip through fashion magazines and find images that reflect them.
Hip-hop music can not only have an affect on the way a woman views her body but it may also reinforce a sense of sexual empowerment. Female rap stars like Trina, Lil Kim and Foxy Brown have never shied away from sexual themes in their music. While their revealing clothes and explicit lyrics have been the subject of some criticism, they have all defended their images.
In fact, their lyrics would have you believe that learning how to use sex to render men helpless can make a woman very powerful. Many female MCs talk about sex just as openly and explicitly as their male counterparts and approach the subject with the same cavalier attitude. In an attempt to position themselves as equals to their male counterparts, these artists are, in a way, fashioning their own version of a feminist movement.
Hip-hop music, like all forms of popular entertainment, has good, bad and ugly elements. It is important to remember that the videos that make it to MTV�s �Total Request Live� or even BET�s �Uncut,� are just slices of the whole pie and do not represent all hip-hop. With the genre of hip-hop being so multidimensional, no analysis of it can be cut and dry. As the culture of hip-hop continues to influence the broader culture, the long-term affects it will have on sex and sexuality in our society are yet to be known.
» E-mail Sabrina Ford @ sabrinaford@gmail.com
A couple of weeks back I had the pleasure of attending a Rap Sessions panel that discussed the question of women and their role in Hip Hop. One particular response by Dr. Raquel Rivera really stuck with me: “we are too fast to demonize the raunch. Don’t demonize the Raunch!” Joan Morgan (yes, THE Joan Morgan) followed up with an astute observation that American society does not have a discourse available for the erotic. My first response? “Ha! I love that!” The second response? “Yeah, that makes sense.”
What is our fascination with sexuality? Particularly, what is our fascination with the erotic and its impact on our understanding of blackness? (Hyper)sexuality often frames our understanding of men and women of color since our implementation into western culture. It is a gendered and oppressive space, often maintaining rigid boundaries and unilateral interpretation.
What is our fascination with sexuality? Particularly, what is our fascination with the erotic and its impact on our understanding of blackness? (Hyper)sexuality often frames our understanding of men and women of color since our implementation into western culture. It is a gendered and oppressive space, often maintaining rigid boundaries and unilateral interpretation.
For centuries, the black body existed primarily within the confinements of sexual expression. And, unfortunately, that space has not completely evolved. The Americanized erotic is transfixed within the slave discourse and white privilege that dominated the antebellum United States.
Although I do not deny that women have been objectified via the infamous “male gaze,” a “one-up” that white women have over black women is the fact that at least their “honor” and “purity” granted them access to the coveted cult of true womanhood. Their bodies and sexuality are considered worthy of preserving and being respected. Black women, however, have inherited membership in the cult of the freaknasty. Breeders, freak (a leek)s, Jezebels, and, as Abbey Lincoln suggests, “sexual outhouses of white men,” African American women have not been able to remove themselves from the perspective of a sexual lens.
This referential point has sustained itself in both white and black communities. Because black sexuality is such a taboo topic, the push to avoid it sensationalizes this discourse and the imagery that accompanies it. One possible reason for the lack of erotic discourse available is the desire of black America to remove the stigma of sexuality from its identity. This silence bears an excruciating consequence: the continuation of a vicious cycle of misrepresentative sexual stereotypes and outside influence on the inner African American community’s understanding of identity.
This referential point has sustained itself in both white and black communities. Because black sexuality is such a taboo topic, the push to avoid it sensationalizes this discourse and the imagery that accompanies it. One possible reason for the lack of erotic discourse available is the desire of black America to remove the stigma of sexuality from its identity. This silence bears an excruciating consequence: the continuation of a vicious cycle of misrepresentative sexual stereotypes and outside influence on the inner African American community’s understanding of identity.
Returning back to the idea of slave discourse and sexuality, there often extremities associated with categorization of the black body. For black men, the buck, brute, or Uncle Tom archetype covers the range of hypersexual to asexual. In similar fashion, African American women were categorized by the Jezebel, Sapphire, or Mammy. These representations have far from disappeared from American public culture. In fact, these proto-erotic images have transcended to reflect and evolve with (popular) black culture. Because we are now part of the Hip Hop Era, there is a Hip Hop Erotic, a gendered and emotionally charged space that all of its affiliated parties are forced to navigate.
"Don't Demonize the Raunch!:" The Hip Hop Erotic
Hip Hop Culture has an intriguing way of presenting and reaffirming notions of black sexuality. The video vixen takes after the Jezebel while the thug is the hybrid descendant of the brute and buck. Even more fascinating is how the erotic is constructed: women’s sexuality is often encompassed in a bitter and angry space while men, also angry, present their sexual identity via a dominant and hyperviolent space (i.e. rape discourse).
There are frequencies or reserved spaces that allow levels of visible blackness. These frequencies are especially noticeable for women in Hip Hop. It is obvious that the video vixen reflects the highest frequency of womanhood within Hip Hop culture. Their presentation reaffirms the suspected correlation between black women and hypersexuality.
For female emcees, it is hypersexuality or obscenity. The Little Kims, Foxy Browns, Trinas, and Nicki Minajes fight to get more (radio) play. The Jean Graes and Mysteriouses (from Making the Bad Season Two) fight to be taken seriously without using their sexuality to validate their lyricism and authenticity. This lack of fluidity forces women to navigate through stringent spaces of extreme identity.
Because those lines don’t blur, it is problematic for our understanding and placement of women who try and straddle the fence (no pun intended). For example, how would we place Missy Elliot, a “femcee” who started off not being able to stand the rain in a big ass trash bag talking about YoYos ( I caught the double meaning)? She evolved into a femme fatal emcee, warning listeners about her distaste for minute men and tricks she could do with magic sticks and cho chas.
In a way, Missy was a Hip Hop Mammy, often looking out for other artists (like Aaliyah, Da Brat, and the “mama” of 550 Music Group) and suppressing any trace of sexual identity. Missy, while multitalented, often had her sexuality and authenticity questioned after the transformation of her lyrical content because she aligned her music with the sexy. While not asexual, Da Brat followed similar suit (“So Funkdafied” to “Ladies Night” and “What Do You Like”). In order to maintain relevance and visibility, these talented emcees were forced to submit and learn to function within a recognizable space of hypersexuality.
Why is the erotic so enticing and prevalent? It is a sensationalized space that is often molded and shaped to fit the experiences and expectations of its beholder. The erotic space is a struggle between conservative thought (traditionalism?) and open sexual reflection (liberalism?). Sexuality is a fluid form of expression that is only a facet of the black experience. Once this is accepted as a normative state of gender discourse perhaps we can transcend from viewing sexuality as a stigma of the black body to utilizing it as a tool for conversing about and complicating our understanding of blackness.
The mainstream debut of Lil Wayne's protegee Nicki Minaj brings the perennial question to the forefront of hip-hop consciousness once again: what is the role of women in the rap game? While Minaj is tearing up the airwaves, appearing on everything from Mariah Carey's Up Out My Face to Ludacris's My Chick Bad, the self-described "Harajuku Barbie" has captured the imagination of a generation that hasn't seen a dominant, prolific female rapper since the heyday of Lil Kim and Foxy Brown.
Minaj may be hyped as the latest leading lady of rap but, as hip hop has become more mainstream, the shift in expectations of women has led to a new reality: a successful female artist must not only be talented, but also able to titillate the gaze of an assumed male viewer. Earlier MCs such as MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, Monie Love, Queen Pen, Da Brat, and Roxane Shante had far more options for onscreen representation, often appearing in the types of clothes their male contemporaries were wearing.
At that time, it was not unusual to see women attired in Cross Colours, sneakers, and baggy jeans. If a woman chose a different look, it was just one of many. Even more mainstream groups such as Salt-N-Pepa and TLC were able to lace their lyrics with stories of female sexual autonomy, not just bedroom prowess. However, when Lil Kim erupted on the scene with her debut album Hardcore and Foxy Brown tore up airwaves with Ill Na Na, their popularity heralded a sea change in the way female rappers are perceived.
The video for rapper Yo Gotti's 2009 hit 5-Star Chick exemplifies the requirement that female MCs occupy both the role of rapper and that of eye candy. He spends half the video with one main girl who he holds up as representative of five-star status, focusing on her body and clothes, while six other women dance seductively in the background. The 5-Star Chick remix video features southern rapper Trina and Nicki Minaj, spitting lyrics about their independence while the video holds them up as sexual objects. The opening shot of Minaj's face quickly cuts to her bouncing chest, while the camera pans slowly over Trina's exposed thighs as she struts around the set, proclaiming their five-star status.
In order to enjoy mainstream success, the requirement is for women in rap to be as physically attractive as they are lyrically proficient. This can also be seen in Minaj's new video for Massive Attack, where her penchant for over-the-top costuming has to be balanced with gratuitous shots of her exposed behind.
Menda Francois, graduate of Bryn Mawr College and member of feminist hip-hop collective 3 X A Lady Crew, created an entire senior thesis around the contradictory demands of women who rock mics. Her paper, Step Your Pussy Up: Nicki Minaj and the Signifyin(g) Tropes of Hardcore Female Rap, explains:
Menda Francois, graduate of Bryn Mawr College and member of feminist hip-hop collective 3 X A Lady Crew, created an entire senior thesis around the contradictory demands of women who rock mics. Her paper, Step Your Pussy Up: Nicki Minaj and the Signifyin(g) Tropes of Hardcore Female Rap, explains:
"The female body is rarely a site of empowerment except when it is being objectified to define female strength through heterosexist sexiness, which, displayed for male satisfaction, creates little real power for women. Because female rappers' value lies in their ability to perform masculinity as well as be sexually objectified, when a femcee is not performing the role of the sexually available coquette nor the female thug, her power and agency are nonexistent."
This dynamic is seen even in the ranks of independent hip-hop. Emerging MC Psalm One, who is currently signed to Rhymesayers Entertainment, spits interesting and complex lyrics about everything from domestic violence to "bio-chemical bursts". However, her image and positioning mark her out as different to her male counterparts. On the Rhymesayer's artist page, Psalm One is surrounded by male artists in thoughtful, pensive, or playful poses. She is pictured in a shoulder-baring tube top, with one hand clasped across her throat – an image that positions her as feminine, vulnerable, and coquettish. While this persona should not be construed negatively (after all, reclaiming space for women in rap will take on many forms), within the current context of women in hip hop, Psalm One's positioning echoes the requirements of the mainstream.
While the same tropes still hold, one can only hope that eventually the increasing female representation in rap will lead to women challenging the norms of the male-dominated space, not just performing in it.
Critical Investigation
Critical investigation title
Women are often objectified in hip-hop music videos, why are artist such as Trina represented in such a sexualized manner? And how can their success be depicted without conforming to stereotypical conventions?
Linked Production and who I am working with
A music video glamorizing female success, with alternative ideologies represented in a masculine way. I will be working with Nida, Shna and Jason.
Critical investigation key words
Ø Objectified
Ø Sexualized
Ø Stereotypes
Ø Conforming
Ø Hip-hop
As there has been an increase in females pursuing a career of rap, I think it will be interesting to explore the hip hop genre in regards to the representation of women. A variation of shots to exaggerate the female body, fast paste sound for females to dance to in order to move body in an aesthetically pleasing way. I will find out why females within the hip hop genre are represented in this way. Laura Mulvery’s theory of feminism fits into this study because women are objectified to appease to the male gaze’s, furthermore the theory of structuralism is implemented as there are narrative patterns throughout many different texts. Throughout history women have been objectified as they have been perceived as lesser then men, the title given to women meaning ‘of man’ subjects women to the creation of man meaning they are owned I do not have their own entity. This has had an effect on the construction of a woman’s representation within the hip hop genre because they are constructed in order to appease the male dominated audiences voyeuristic needs, This is relevant because historical and social events can almost alter a representation because the word is fed media via hyperemic of what the mainstream believe is news worthy and ‘real’.
Wednesday 21 September 2011
Five Biggest Media Institutions
After a number of mergers and acquisitions five powerful media conglomerates lead the world's content production and distribution. They operate on an international basis with subsidiaries all around the globe and engage in every imaginable kind of media industry.
| 1. AOL Time Warner (US) | 26,838.000.000* |
| 2. Disney (US) | 22,976.000.000 |
| 3. Bertelsmann (GER) | 16,389.000.000 |
| 4. News Corporation (AUS) | 12,841.000.000 |
| 5. Viacom (US) | 12,100.000.000 |
Monday 19 September 2011
London Riot Debates
The Guardian
Certainly, the first online gathering of people mourning – and soon vowing to avenge – the death of Tottenham resident Mark Duggan took place on Facebook. Some of those behind the page, which now boasts more than 7,500 fans, launched into action shortly before 10.30pm on Saturday evening – more than five hours after the first public show of protest, outside the police station on Tottenham High Road. At 10.45pm, when rioters set a double decker bus alight, the page posted: "Please upload any pictures or video's you may have from tonight in Tottenham. Share it with people to send the message out as to why this has blown into a riot."
However, otherwise, if there was any sign that a peaceful protest would escalate, it wasn't to be found on Facebook. Twitter was slightly more indicative: tweets about an attempt to target Sunday's Hackney Carnival were spotted by police and the event was abruptly cancelled. Scotland Yard warned on Monday afternoon that those "inciting violence" on the 140-character social network would not go unpunished. Deputy assistant commissioner Stephen Kavanagh confirmed that officers were looking at the website as part of investigations into widespread looting and rioting. However, the most powerful and up-to-the-minute rallying appears to have taken place on a more covert social network: BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).
Using BlackBerry handsets – the smartphone of choice for the majority (37%) of British teens, according to last week's Ofcom study – BBM allows users to send one-to-many messages to their network of contacts, who are connected by "BBM PINs". For many teens armed with a BlackBerry, BBM has replaced text messaging because it is free, instant and more part of a much larger community than regular SMS.
Three Quotes
1. “BlackBerry Messenger played a key role as police look on Facebook and Twitter for signs of unrest spreading will have missed out – they should have watched BBM” - The Guardian
2. “BBC news reports that the most up-to-the-minute rallying in the London riots took place not on Twitter or Facebook "but on a more covert social network: BlackBerry Messenger". – BBC
3. “Users of social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), could see their access to services blocked if they are “plotting violence, disorder and criminality”, David Cameron told MPs”. – The Telegraph
Summer Research Project
Media Representations
In this text men and women are being represented. The men are being represented in a very violent powerful stereotypical manner to possibly reinforce the believe that men are the stronger beings. The trailer included no female footage, however the text represents females in a very subjective manor, this image is taken of the character Meelina, as we can she has been constructed in a way to pleasure the male consumers of this text, she has revealing clothing, posed sexually. These representations were finalized and decided by Warner Brothers, they are the institution that created this text ‘mortal kombat’. The characters are represented this way because ideally this is how according to the game industry characters should look. They should look aesthetically appealing to the consumers so they are persuaded to buy the game, this representation is highly inaccurate women are not constructed to perfection they come in all shapes and sizes, and men are not bound to violence. The opportunities of self-representation can be sensationalised in this text as half of the characters are not humans they contain special powers which makes them very different from the humans, so possibly the construction of the characters is to further reinforce their individuality as beings.
Media Language and forms
Within this text the denotative and connotative meanings are clearly evident. Analysing this text from a denotative point of view we can clearly see it is violent and sexist as this female character is being objectified and demoralized. The character has an unhealthy clench for death and many close up shots are used after the fatality, to compliment the characters body however subjecting her more as she is being used as a tool for male pleasure. Alternatively, the character could invoke substitute thoughts into the audiences mind such as females must bee seen as dangerous and powerful, which reinforces the statement ‘more then just a pretty face’. The significance of the texts connotations send a very powerful message to the audience, subjecting female characters in such away will implant false stereotypes in to male viewers minds, because they play games with female characters constructed like this, they will think a women can only be perfect unless she has a perfect figure. The character Meelina is portrayed in a very sexual manner, at times her behavior could even be seen as arousing as she tries to seduce the screen which is the person playing the game, juxtaposing the male non-verbal construction as the powerful stereotype has been reinforced within the male characters but has not been so heavily sensationalized as the female characters.
The mise en scene of all the levels on the text have been colored and designed in a way which bring more attention to the characters, the level beneath is dull and colours such as black and grey have been used to contrast with the suggestive clothing of the other characters. The sound has no dramatic effect on the text, as it only enhances the scene when a character has the opportunity to perform a fatality (finishing attack). The dominant iconography, which has been reoccurring in this text for the last 10 years, would be the violence, characters are able to chop other characters in half and tear of body parts. This is important to the genre of the game, which is violence because the audience expects to see these things when they play these games so the text has to live to the expectation of the genre. A key visual technique used would be the continuous shot of the character from when she finished her fatality. The camera remains attached to her; a track shot is used to insinuate her body further subjecting the character for male voyeurism.
Genre
Mortal Kombat, commonly abbreviated MK, is a science fantasy series of fighting games created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. The first four renditions and their updates were developed by Midway Games and initially released on arcade machines. The text has been constructed in a very simple way characters will fight one another until they reach the highest position on the pedestal and are given a chance to fight Shao Kang king of the mortal kombat. The audiences are guided through the text, as there is know alternative story game play, they are given a core story to complete which has been constructed by producers Ed Boon and John Tobias. All characters are portrayed as fighters, they all have personal weapons to use in kombat and each character has their own personal story, which the consumer will be able to access while playing story mode. The heroes are constructed as Homo sapiens (humans) whereas the villains are constructed in a super natural form. Features such as sound, mise en scene and editing fulfill a role in enhancing the existing violence within the text; the values within the text are that super beings have a higher ranking over humans, as they are more powerful, and ideologies such as boundary breaking are implemented into this text as humans are able to battle and destroy the super beings.
Media Institutions
The institutional source of the text is from Warner Brothers games department. For many years Warner Brothers have been creating high graphic, exciting, and carefully configured games, because Warner brothers focus more on deconstructing realities and re-creating them in fantasying ways, this text has had to follow in that course which is why the graphics have been carefully configured to make the characters aesthetically pleasing to the consumers in addition throughout the story mode a greater sense of the narrative has been giving as 20th century Warner Brother games want to be more insightful to their consumers. The source is a commercial institutional because of this the text will be given more recognition because Warner Brothers have the money to fund promotional and sales campaigns for the text. This text is distributed through game franchises such as ‘Game’ and ‘Blockbusters’ there the games are sold for which is how customers by them, Time Warner owns Warner Brothers. Warner Brothers is the 3rd oldest movie studio in America, which has had continuous operation. The company is located in Burbank, California.
Media Values and Ideologies
The major values in this text are that humans can be powerful if they train and are willing to sacrifice their lives. A key value promoted is that power is everything and without it you are worthless, assumptions within the text are that humans are weak, so weak that super beings are able to invade the earth, the super beings have moderate success once invading and are only stopped when text goes against its key values and that is when the humans begin to fight and conquer the super beings. Underpinning ideologies are evident through the construction of the male and female characters, That all races posses a perfect body which has been crafted to perfection in addition that violence is the absolute way to solve problems, and life is something that can be created and taken away. Within the text new fighters are created and existing fighters are killed in gory deaths.
Media Audiences
The text is addressed at players of the age of 18+, which shows the target audience of this text are older teens who do not need supervision or guidance as the text contains excessive violence. Assumptions we can make about the audience who consume this text are that they are probably misogynistic as women are attacked in the text and are subjected as no more then tools for the pleasure of the male audience, in addition murder displayed in a supernatural form is acceptable as it is not real which has desensitized the existing audience. An evident assumption about the text is that audiences who are intrigued about murder and violence will buy this text; this is the 9th game of the series so we can assume that the text has a very large audience, because game after game has been created which shows each game has been successful enough to have a sequel. As mentioned before this text would appeal to older teenagers interested by fantasy and marital arts, as I am a fan of this text, I am slightly intrigued by the values the text promotes. Something about playing as human fighters and defending the earth against super beings is very interesting the reason being why is because the text has been continuously constructed in an insightful knowledgeable way, as audiences can engage in the story taking in a full understanding of the narrative.
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